Living with the dodgy '07 Audi A4 Avant 3.0 TDI Quattro.

[Noel Tidybeard]

3 hours ago, ruffgeezer said:

Irrespective of the public transport woes, thanks again for a thoroughly decent transaction. 👍

 

Now Grantham bound, hopefully in time to make the connection to Boston.

nah fuck that give him negative feedback cos he didn't take you home! 🤣

[ruffgeezer]

Made it to Boston, home by quarter to 9.

[Cord Fourteener]

Day 2, good points of V70: many. 

Bad points so far: full beam flash is very sensitive and so far I've mostly blinded folk rather than flash lights. 

740, pivots over back wheels practically. V70, arcs round gently. Maneuvering with the trailer will be fun. 

[Cord Fourteener]

Still in the first week of V70 ownership and I'm loving it. 

So far I can find nothing that doesn't work.

It has a few rumbles at idle, especially when foot is on brake but given its nearly 337,000 miles I'm not moaning, I'm scraping the barrel to find faults. 

I've known cars with a third of the miles that sound goosed and nothing  works properly. 

It really is a credit to its previous owners. 

 

[Cord Fourteener]

Again, barrel scraping, the full lock either way sounds a bit weird and the single rear seat back unlock button is proving awkward, but it does work. 

Still, very impressive car. Now I've filled the boot with essential crap for a gig and there's plenty of room to spare. 

Big strong 5-pot diesel says load? What load? Easy peasy. 

[wuvvum]

On 8/17/2022 at 6:45 PM, Cord Fourteener said:

740, pivots over back wheels practically. V70, arcs round gently. Maneuvering with the trailer will be fun. 

They do have a shit turning circle.  That's the only thing I really don't like about them.  It's odd as the previous gen V70 (850 shape) was nearly as good as the RWD cars.

[Cord Fourteener]

On 8/19/2022 at 4:03 PM, wuvvum said:

They do have a shit turning circle.  That's the only thing I really don't like about them.  It's odd as the previous gen V70 (850 shape) was nearly as good as the RWD cars.

Yeah that's odd.

[Shortos]

Are your full beams staying on? Rather than just doing a little flash? 

[bear-in-the-air]

On 8/19/2022 at 4:03 PM, wuvvum said:

They do have a shit turning circle.  That's the only thing I really don't like about them.  It's odd as the previous gen V70 (850 shape) was nearly as good as the RWD cars.

I believe it is because the suspension in these is set up to accommodate the inline 6 transverse that the s80 got, even though the v70 and s60 never got the engine so don't need the extra room, they share the parts. The previous generation only gets up to the 5 pot transverse so a touch more room. 

 

re: High beam: I noticed mine is the same. Won't stick on to highbeam when you have the dial pointed at off, even though that still means lights on for me

[Shortos]

Yep.. lights need to be in the ON position for full beam.. OFF position for Flash full beam.  Swedish thing. 

[Cord Fourteener]

On 8/20/2022 at 5:36 PM, Shortos said:

Are your full beams staying on? Rather than just doing a little flash? 

I find i have to really concentrate on giving the lightest touch and they will flash with lights on but I blinded a few folk while learning this!

The 740 has a more normal set up. 

I find with all my Swedish designed cars i leave the lights on all the time and when the ignition is off they all go out. 

[Cord Fourteener]

I learned something about the folding seats. 

Always have the seatbelts done up when folding. The way they enable the cavernous cargo load is by putting the seatbelt reel in the seat tops so sometimes they lock too short to return the seat backs to upright.

Fix: unbolt the bottom of the seatbelt.

 

[Cord Fourteener]

So I haven't posted here in a while...

To update, 

Wife car: '17 Renault Clio 1.5 DCi. Has the fairly common hesitation fault at low revs, rear wiper kaputt. Otherwise good.

My cars: '89 Volvo 740 2.0 saloon - forever in a garage in Flint having bits and bobs done to it by someone able and willing to tinker. Been in forever though. Miss having it on hand. Want it back!

'04 Volvo V70 D5 - a few things needing looking at sooner rather than later, main one being the gearbox grinding noise, so now from 1st Jan road pending quotations, costing and decisions. 

'07 Audi B7 A4 Avant 3.0 TDI auto quattro - because it was there and seemed to work ok and I always wanted to have an estate car with AWD. But mostly I decided to look at a spare daily for a while (got some long essential journeys coming up and didn't want to play gearbox roulette). So why not, I like dodgy and slightly bonkers estates.

Colour of cars: various shades of blue. More by accident than design.

[Sunny Jim]

Good to hear from you. Typical that after weeks of rain you buy an AWD just as the weather clears up and is bright and sunny.

Maybe it's a good omen and your ownership experience of a complicated 18 year old Audi will be similarly bright and sunny. Please do let us know either way.

 

[Cord Fourteener]

14 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

Good to hear from you. Typical that after weeks of rain you buy an AWD just as the weather clears up and is bright and sunny.

Maybe it's a good omen and your ownership experience of a complicated 18 year old Audi will be similarly bright and sunny. Please do let us know either way.

 

I hear its going to get cold... maybe I'll be able to see if i can get it to skid if it gets sufficiently snowy and icy!

I had the Passat before, it was a good tatty but reliable beast, the Audi has more gadgets but hey if it keeps me mobile, keeps the kids going to their places and keeps me earning for a while then I'll be happy.

If not I can tick off a wish list item; a reasonable powerful awd car for a bit. 

I'll take some photos at some point when i get a chance, it's really quite tatty inside!

[Cord Fourteener]

In the cold light of day then, the Dodgy A4...

Everything important seems to work though. 

Need to sort a head unit (steal Pioneer unit from Volvo) to go with the OEM Bose amp and speakers.

I didn't get photos but there are a few little rusty bits, the corner of a rear wheel arch being the worst. 

Mot has rust mentioned, hopefully it won't be too much of an issue. 

 

[Split_Pin]

Christ, how much was that again man?

Good to see you posting again, I always enjoy your threads/posts.

[Cord Fourteener]

26 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Christ, how much was that again man?

Good to see you posting again, I always enjoy your threads/posts.

Thanks, I've been so busy that posting to social media took a back seat. In fact thinking about cars over and above cruising in a Volvo hasn't been a priority. But anyway this buy has inspired me a bit!

So, yes the Dodgy A4, £1150 in total. 

Not the cheapest car I've ever bought but it seems to be ok in the important places. 

It was this or a similar age Vectra 1.9D estate for more money, those were the choices I had in budget where I was and at the time. So I went with the quattro. I guess I'm used to a bit of posh after the Volvos!

[Cord Fourteener]

So on Welsh roads, by that i mean all my local daily roads there is a suspension clunk that wasn't apparent in the English Midlands. 

Racism, that, I tell you. Next I'll find a sheep in the boot. Whoever you are, dos a ffycio dy hyn.

I've glued and gaffered the seat backs, hope they'll stick without the gaffer.

Standard chrome edge A4 B7 grill ordered, no mushrooms, extra chilli. Gàidhlig mayo please. 

I'll blob some rust inhibitor and rattle can paint on the outside Rusty bits, then it won't look like i crashed into a pickup. That was the story from the seller, GF drove it and crashed into the back of a flatbed. Cwrs, mêt.

He said he replaced the interior. If that is true he did a great job, or at least someone did. 

I'm still not convinced the car was not nicked but he let me photo his driving licence and take the whole V5c home to make the transfer myself in my own time, which i did wrth gwrs but he had some story about the log book being in his boss's name and the address we met at wasn't his.

But who am I to judge?

Car is on Sorn until 1st Jan but oops my V70 has started pissing something remarkably similar to coolant out so if I need to go far I might have to tax and insure it properly on the 31st.

Needs the tow ball on the otherwise complete tow bar set up, to be arranged. 

So far I can say it stinks of fags, drives like a dream and the 3.0 tdi only wakes up if you want 7g acceleration. Otherwise its half asleep even if we're doing 60 on a straight bit and want to overtake someone doing 59.

Squeeze the accelerator then we're doing 80. Ŵps. Auto box is a bit dim though. It gets there but only after some pondering. Slush boxes though eh?

Goodbye wheelspin, no such thing. 

Bring on extreme winter as forecasted; it has 3 random summer tyres and one all-season. Awd is only as good as its tyres, especially when on the brakes.

*never driven awd before. 

That is all.

 

 

 

[Cord Fourteener]

The Volvo V70 is a bit upset though. Or just showing signs of a hard life. 

Something is leaking, so far it appears to coolant-related.

Things are steaming, HVAC blows cold. Radiator fan is working extra hard. So far the temp gauge has stayed steady though.

I was going to take this car off the road anyway and assess costs to fix it, but the jobs list is getting much longer than I thought. 

 

[Cord Fourteener]

So not sure what I've done to my V70 but after all this leaking what I think was water the engine sounds like a bag of nails. Doesn’t sound healthy...

[Split_Pin]

Possibly the water pump shat itself?

[bangernomics]

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly apparently.

Not the weather for cold metal on fingers but pulling it apart will reveal all and broken isn’t going to get more broken at least. List SP says pump or a tensioner etc can make a load of noise. I have a pressure test set here if you aren’t too far away may be worth pumping it up to see the source.

[Cord Fourteener]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Possibly the water pump shat itself?

Could be, I guess that would fit. 

[Cord Fourteener]

21 minutes ago, bangernomics said:

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly apparently.

Not the weather for cold metal on fingers but pulling it apart will reveal all and broken isn’t going to get more broken at least. List SP says pump or a tensioner etc can make a load of noise. I have a pressure test set here if you aren’t too far away may be worth pumping it up to see the source.

Where abouts are you these days? 

I'm tempted to either roffle it off or get rid it some other way, there's a laundry list of issues. 

I think it had a very hard life, it's served me well but it's beyond my means. 

Which is why I had the Audi sat waiting even before this latest breakage. 

[Zelandeth]

I'd never be wanting to trust the gauge if you've got a loss of coolant situation - the sender is only going to give an accurate reading if it's submerged in coolant.  If there's no coolant wherever it lives, it will give a substantially lower reading than the reality of the situation.

Looks like wrong end of the engine to be water pump, I'd be expecting puddling on the offside if that were the source (though admittedly the under trays if intact could make it look like it's coming from somewhere totally different).

[Cord Fourteener]

14 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

...

Looks like wrong end of the engine to be water pump, I'd be expecting puddling on the offside if that were the source (though admittedly the under trays if intact could make it look like it's coming from somewhere totally different).

I assumed the splatter on the engine cover is at least partly indicative of where the leak comes from, that was fresh at the time it all went Pink Fong.

Looks to me vaguely in the middle or slightly towards the nearside, but who knows how the steaming flow bounced around. 

[NorthernMonkey]

1 hour ago, Cord Fourteener said:

I assumed the splatter on the engine cover is at least partly indicative of where the leak comes from, that was fresh at the time it all went Pink Fong.

Looks to me vaguely in the middle or slightly towards the nearside, but who knows how the steaming flow bounced around. 

I would imagine that’s where the fan blew the escaping coolant from the leaking radiator?

 

[Cord Fourteener]

37 minutes ago, NorthernMonkey said:

I would imagine that’s where the fan blew the escaping coolant from the leaking radiator?

 

Yes, that seems likely

[Cord Fourteener]

Week 2 of driving the Dodgy Audi, my thoughts were on whether to faff around buying cheap ebay 17" rims with naff tyres so i can swap the Vreidstein All-seasons from the V70 or whether to pay the enormously expensive price to put new 18 inch tyres on. 

Unfortunately getting stuck with a flat while out and about has forced me to decide. 

Expensive new 18 inch tyres for the front wheels now ordered for delivery today hopefully (given the snowy conditions and the high demand we'll see).

I'll need a spare tyre too, it looked OK in the dark when I bought it last week but it turned out to be fcked so i couldn't even get a tow with Autoaid.